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My Favorite Morning Glory Muffins

Make your morning glorious with a batch of these hearty, whole grain muffins!

A lot of my friends and family are on health kicks right now, keeping me hot on the hunt for healthy, satisfying recipes that are easy to make and freezer friendly. These whole wheat morning glory muffins have quickly become a favorite.

Have you ever had a morning glory muffin before? They’re an old school bakery favorite, and have been one of my favorites since I was a kid. They’re so moist and tender and sweet. Add a cup of coffee and oh mah gosh. HEAVEN.

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Another bonus? These muffins are tailor-made to use up all those odds and ends you have hiding in the fridge. They’re loaded with:

fresh carrots

grated apple

sweet coconut flakes

crunchy walnuts

chewy raisins

coconut oil

whole wheat flour

a kiss of brown sugar

and love ♥♥♥

Taste wise, they’re a cross between a cinnamon apple muffin and carrot cake. ← Best of both worlds!!!

Let’s talk ingredient substitutions!

These muffins are delightfully adaptable. Don’t like coconut oil? Try using canola oil, or a very mild olive oil. Not a fan of walnuts? Use almonds or pecans instead. No brown sugar in the pantry? Granulated sugar or coconut sugar will work! Hate raisins? Toss in dried cherries or cranberries for a tasty swap.

P.S. Unless you have a serious aversion to carrot/apple peels, there’s no need to take that extra step. These muffins are wonderfully rustic like that.

These hearty and homemade muffins are just the thing to fill you up when you need a quick breakfast or afternoon snack. Better than any muffin you’ll grab from the bakery… and way cheaper, too. You can thank me later 😉

Serving a crowd? How about some morning glory MINI muffins. Teeny-tiny, mega tasty, and so stinkin’ cute.

If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment below and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature on instagram! Seeing your kitchen creations makes my day. ♥

One-Bowl Morning Glory Muffins

Simple, sweet, and supremely moist - these morning glory muffins are perfect for breakfast, a snack, or dessert.

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

1 apple, shredded

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups grated carrot (about 3 medium)

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup flaked coconut

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Instructions

Line a muffin tin with paper liners and set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F).

In large bowl add the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt; whisk well to combine. Add in the applesauce, oil, apple and vanilla; whisk just until combined. Fold in the carrot, raisins, coconut and walnuts; stir until ingredients are combined. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (or with just a few crumbs attached). Cool muffins in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

Notes

If you make these into mini muffins, decrease the bake time to about 10 minutes, or until the tops are golden and the centers are fully cooked.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size1 muffin or 2-3 mini muffins

Amount Per Serving

% Daily Value

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Love, love, love this recipe! Even my anti-healthy anything fiancé is hooked. They’ve been my go-to morning muffin for the past few weeks now . Only tweak I made was to use dried cranberries instead of raisins. Thanks for sharing the recipe. 🙂

I just made these muffins… SO good! They are really moist and fluffy. I used a cup of whole wheat flour, half a cup of wheat bran and half a cup of chickpea flour, and the result is simply awesome. Thank you for sharing this recipe!

Oh my goodness. Literally. These muffins are perfection!!! I didn’t want to get my hopes up because a lot of times vegan muffins tend to be gooey or wet inside or dry, but these are absolutely wonderful! I tasted the batter because it smelled so good and I could tell it was going to be a winner. The flavor, the texture, the moistness, everything is perfect. I just added a little oats to mine because they’re morning muffins, and it seemed appropriate. I am in love with this recipe! Thank you!

I made your delicious recipe with a few changes. For the grains I used 1c. oats,1/4c. spelt flour,1/4c. garbanzo bean flour, 1/4c. almond meal, 1/8c. hemp hearts and 1/8c. ground flax seed. I changed out 4 medjool (with 2/3c. water) to sweeten instead of sugar and omitted the applesauce. Instead of muffins I made them in a baking pan and cut them into breakfast squares. They came out so moist and fluffy. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.

I made this and absolutely loved them! They are perfect because I spend long days on campus and there’s nothing more filling and exciting than one of these muffins when I’m taking a break from studying. I’m making them again as I speak but I’m making a few changes to make them oil free. Let’s hope they turn out as good as the first round!
Great recipe!

Perfect! They came out perfect even if I made a couple substitutions: Spelt flour for the Wholewheat flour; divided the raisins between raisins, dried dates and apricots; used 1/2 c. diced pinneaple instead of apple;and used ONLY 2 tbsp of cane sugar and they are perfectly sweet as is! I love, love, love these muffins!

I know this is crazy late for this question, but I’m a calorie counting nut and I just had to share lol…these muffins are 423 calories each if you make 12 muffins (which is a great breakfast if you’re on a 2,000 calorie diet)! But if you’re on a 1300-1500 cal diet like me, cut out the coconut flakes and they’re only 283 calories!

I’ve been on the search for a healthy smash cupcake for my daughter’s 1st birthday. I’d like to omit the nuts because I have not introduced nuts to her yet. Any suggestions on what to put in their place?

I made these yesterday and they were great. I did make a few alterations though. Instead of all-purpose flour I used Soy flower to add a little extra protein. I also added a quarter teaspoon allspice and put craisons in addition to the raisons. This seems like a very versatile recipe and I’m going to experiment with it more in the future. Great recipe!

Made these today, subbed oat flour and used turbinado sugar in place of brown sugar. They are divine! I did have to increase baking time by 10 minutes and they came out beautifully! Excellent vegan/gf muffin!

Love this recipe! Made with 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup quick oats and substituted coconut oil with pumpkin puree because I can’t help but put pumpkin in everything. So yummy!! Perfect for breakfast or a snack 🙂

I made theses and they are to die for!
But I can’t help but feel like I taste the baking soda or the baking powder. This recipe calls for quite bit of them. Is it possible to add eggs and use less baking soda and baking powder? I have seen a similar recipe with eggs but they don’t use coconut oil or applesauce! And I would like to keep using these.

We had our first Morning Glory muffins at a Bed and Breakfast in August. Where have these little balls of yummy been all of our lives? Came home and searched for a recipe we could eat guilt free…vegan. Came upon your recipe, and I’ve made them twice. Each try has given me a yield of 20 muffins. These muffins are absolutely wonderful. I’ve shared each batch and everyone loves them. Thank you so much!

I made these today but I wanted to make them festive so I substituted a few things and they were so yummy!
for apple sauce I used pumpkin puree, for apple I used zucchini and I didn’t end up using raisins or coconut but chocolate chips because I was nervous about them and I figured the chocolate would cover a multitude of sins 😉 (if I do again I will use crasins and orange zest instead) They are so yummy, all thanks to baker by nature. Thanks for the original recipe!

I skipped a nap to make these: they seem like the perfect breakfast! I just wanted to add that I followed the ingredients exactly, but it made 20 regular muffins. Huh? I know they’all get eaten, but wonder if I did something wrong….

We made these catering and quadrupled the recipe, such a hit with breakfast! We had extra batter and ended up adding oats and making cookies. The cookies were fantastic on their own- but even better drizzled with a German Chocolate Frosting!

I hardly leave reviews for recipes that miss the mark I just don’t try anything from the site again. But I’m curious how everyone got ‘great’ muffins from this recipe. Halfway through mixing it I realized There is NO liquid in the mix, unless I missed something?….how is 1/2c of oil enough liquid for 2c of flour, especially whole wheat??? Before I even added the carrot I could barely mix it, it was soo stiff.
I am a very good cook and baker and I can make adjustments to recipes if needed.
I didn’t want to take the chance of it not coming out right so I made the following adjustments:
-added 3/4c of milk
-1/3c of sour cream
-and used 1c each of APF and Whole wheat

Of course I had to bake it longer which was fine.
I prefer moist muffins so I think the sour cream really helped.

I will say I love versatile recipes so this has that advantage. and liked that I was able to make the adjustments to get them to taste how I preferred without wasting ingredients. I think otherwise they would’ve been hard as a rock.

I made these last weekend & they were delicious! My batter did make 14 very full muffins, but I’m not complaining about extras! Today I’m going to try subbing in blueberries somehow so that may be an interesting twist! Thanks so much for the recipe! You can pop it in myfitnesspal website in the recipe section, for those asking, just copy/paste the link to this webpage & it’ll calculate the total calories, etc. Thanks for a great, healthy, muffin recipe!!

I love all the ingredients but they didn’t come out looking as pretty as the picture lol ! I used a little coconut flour instead of all purpose flour !! An I added dates instead of sugar but I think will try with the brown sugar … I added an egg cuz it was dry ! But they still were fluffy ! What did I do wrong ? Or are the just extremely healthy lol ?
Thx Tina

These are great muffins and I will definitely make them again!! I didnt’t have coconut oil yesterday so I used canola oil. I did buy coconut oil now so I am anxious to make them again. They were very moist and gave some to my mom and sister today and they really liked them!! Also, took them to bingo last night and shared with some friends and they liked them too!! Thanks for sharing!! I love the recipe and it’s healthy too!!

Hi, bakerbynature! I just made these with my kids and we are eating them as I type. It just so happened that I already had all the ingredients in my kitchen. As I was mixing everything I wondered if the muffins would be too dry but they are pleasantly moist and tasty, especially inside. My kids approved on everything except the coconut chips and I think they would have been good had I placed them in my food processor to make them less bulky. I did this with the carrots as well and they most certainly would have pulled those out along with the chips had I not processed them. So, this is a was a really good way to sneak in some fiber for them! I will definitely make these in the future. Thanks for a yummy breakfast!

These are wonderful muffin! I doubled the batch because I was so confident after reading all the responses and I was not disappointed. I reduced the sugar to 1/2 c. (1 c. For my double batch) and accidentally forgot the vanilla and neither omission was noticed. I will be making them again soon as I love to keep muffins in the freezer so that I can take one or two out the night before the morning I will enjoy them.

I have a recipe just like this one except for a few changes. I have been making these for several years. Both my husband and I love these.I get 18 reg. Muffins. At 350!for 20-25 minutes. I am going to try your recipe after we eat the ones I just made. Thank you. Happy

I made these and they were delicious!! I did change a few things:
First, I had homemade apple butter on hand from a recipe I’d made earlier in the week, so I used that in place of apple sauce and had to add 1 cup homemade cashew milk because the batter was more like a dough. Then, I didn’t have enough carrots so I subbed half a beet for roughage. Finally, I chopped some slivered almonds and used half of those and half chopped walnuts instead of all chopped walnuts. I added some coconut shreds to adorn the top of these babies, and had some batter left to make two soufflé muffins with! Threw some Earth Balance butter on while they were warm and they melted in my mouth. So delicious, definitely keeping these around as a frequent flyer in our kitchen!

Is there a way to make these GF? My daughter has Hashimotos and I just need to replace the wheat flour so that they’re GF. I’m not much of a baker, so if there’s a simple fix, I’d love to know it so I can make these!!! They look amazing 🙂

Hi Candace. Sadly, I have very little experience with GF baking, so I’m not sure what changes would need to be made. I think a 1 for 1 GF flour would be the best bet, since I’ve heard many have success with them.

@Candace. I Made these into a gluten free version as I have hashimotos aswell. My GF version was Very easy. Swapped the wheat flour was 1 and 1/2 cups of coconut flour and I used 1/2 cup of gluten free all purpose flour instead of the normal flour. The Baking soda and bi carb is naturally Gluten free. Yay. I also used apple puree instead of apple sauce as they often hide gluten derivatives in the sauces. Other changes I made purely because of what I had on hand: Swapped the ground ginger for 1 tsp of minced ginger. It was Just enough. Shredded coconut instead of flaked. I also ground up the walnuts instead of just chopping as I like my nuts smaller. I had to cook these for 20minutes longer due to the denser flour conposition. They were Bloody beautiful.

This is the first muffin recipe I made. Both my husband and I love it! They’re not too sweet and very moist. For sure I will make more in the future and try some modifications. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

These are probably my most favorite muffins that I’ve ever had!!!! My roommate and I make them constantly. They are such a healthy snack to have around we bake them every other week pretty much!! They’re very adaptable. I substitute the oil for pumpkin puree and this time I’m trying it with pineapple pieces instead of shredded Apple.. will see how it turns out!! 🙂 Thanks so much for the recipe it’s my favorite!!! Perfect every time!

I made these this morning. They were delicious! I added pineapple. I omitted the coconut. I did a little less AP flour. My Applesauce wasn’t unsweetened. It was spur of the moment. I will definitely make these again.

I’m going to make these this week! They look great!! I read all the comments though and didn’t see any answers to how best to store them or how best to freeze them. This would be super helpful to know as I’m planning on baking them on Wednesday and then having them ready for my in-laws on Sunday. I’d like to freeze them and then thaw. Should they be thawed over night on the counter?

I made these subbing gluten free flour, 2 cups and used 1/4 cup less sugar. I also added a dash of ground cloves and nutmeg because the spice bin was open, and why not! They taste delicious, especially with pumpkin butter on them! Yum!

I’ve made 3 batches of these so far and plan on always having them in my freezer to grab & go! I’ve started calling them “yoga muffins” because I always have one waiting in my car for after class! They’re perfect, and sooo healthy~ The only thing I do different is to grind up oatmeal and use it in place of that 1/2 cup of white flour, and maybe add pecans instead of walnuts if I have none on hand. Yummy! Thanks so much for the recipe.

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Meet Ashley

Hey! I’m Ashley, a creative spirit with a major sweet tooth. Most days you can find me in my happy place: the kitchen. If I’m not there, I’m probably snapping photos of food, planning a party… or dreaming about my next trip to Paris (AKA my favorite place in the entire world). I’m a story teller, recipe developer, and photographer who firmly believes that a homemade life is a happy life. Learn More.